My tank is 480G plus the sump and fuge.
The sump is about 90G and the fuge is about 80G. My system has been running for several years since its last tear down. Up until a year ago it was running with a lagre wetdry filter that had a combination of bio balls and live rock. I designed the wetdry about 17 years ago when I originally had my tank made. It served me very well but it was time for a change. One of my motivating factors in the change over was eliminating some of my pumps. The tank was originally running with 4 or 5 large pond pumps which were pretty efficient but I decided there was better more efficient ways of accomplishing the same thing using much less power. I was also using a large beckett skimmer which required serious pump power as well so the change over needed to be pretty drastic.
Here is the old wet/dry.
Here is the old pump setup. It was kind of kludgy as I added and changed things over the years.
Umder my tank is an area that is about 94" x 44" which gave me a pretty decent footprint for my new filter setup. I started with some rough sketches followed by marking an area on my floor that had the same dimensions as the space below the tank. Knowing a bit about what I wanted and what would work, I started my design using masking tape on the floor. The idea was to create a new sump/fuge that would fit under the tank with space for pumps and accessories and still be servicable through the doors under the tank. Getting through the openings below the tank meant that I had to create a sump with a seperate fuge.
Here is my preliminary design using masking tape.
Once I had my final layout, it was time for the drawings. I provided my sketches with dimension to my fabricator who then created the computer drawings. Below will give you an idea of dimensions and the desgin I came up with. There are a total of four 7"x16" filter socks, space for my Alpha 300 cone skimmer and a large fuge that can be completely isolated from the sump. This allows to to shut down the fuge for service without interupting the sump or the tank. I just shut one valve and open the bypass valve.
Since the tank was not going to be torn down during the retrofit, I not only had to worry about the new sumps fitting through the doors but also had to have most of the plumbing done prior to tearing out the old sump. Having the pumps plumbed prior would eliminate most of the down time. Here is the new sump and fuge all plumbed up and ready to go under the tank.
A look at the plumbing between the sump and fuge. You can see the bypass line which when the valve is open directs water to the return pump bypassing the fuge.
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